Why Do Dogs Bark In Middle of Night?

Hi guys I'm mostly from New York City but presently staying in a more rural setting in a fairly isolated part of NJ so I don't know too much about the nightly happenings in such a place. I'm a night owl and recently have been staying up often til 6 or 7 in the morning working on things or reading websites such as this one etc. Anyhow I'm curious as to why once in a while at anywhere from 3-4 in the morning and such I will hear neighbor's dogs in the distance start barking. I know there's bears in the area though honestly this whole year there wasn't a single sighting yet though last year was a lot of black bears constantly but also I know that one of the few NJ sightings of bigfoot in history occurred in the area as well so I am just curious to ask from people that know these types of areas and animals (dogs) better than I do if that's a normal occurrence for dogs to sometimes start barking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?

Maybe they're chasing owls.
Or fighting burglars.

Originally posted by Fulcrum29
Hi guys I'm mostly from New York City but presently staying in a more rural setting in a fairly isolated part of NJ so I don't know too much about the nightly happenings in such a place. I'm a night owl and recently have been staying up often til 6 or 7 in the morning working on things or reading websites such as this one etc. Anyhow I'm curious as to why once in a while at anywhere from 3-4 in the morning and such I will hear neighbor's dogs in the distance start barking. I know there's bears in the area though honestly this whole year there wasn't a single sighting yet though last year was a lot of black bears constantly but also I know that one of the few NJ sightings of bigfoot in history occurred in the area as well so I am just curious to ask from people that know these types of areas and animals (dogs) better than I do if that's a normal occurrence for dogs to sometimes start barking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?

I think I know where you maybe headed with this question.

Well, dogs can bark for numerous reasons. We have to remember that dogs have keen sense of hearing, and smell, even vision. Some people question the vision aspect because it has been shown that dogs only see in black and white, but they forget that at night it is probably more useful to have this type of ability. Light is more amplified or shows more contrast when viewing things black and white. If you are near less populated areas and therefore more wildlife, then any slight scurry of the smallest of creatures will set the dogs off, cats, squirrels, raccoons,..etc.

The point is; when dogs bark, they do so, because they hear, see, or smell something. Granted it doesn't mean that they see bigfoot, but it does mean that something is bothering them...



[edit on 2-8-2008 by Gateway]

Originally posted by Gateway

Originally posted by Fulcrum29
Hi guys I'm mostly from New York City but presently staying in a more rural setting in a fairly isolated part of NJ so I don't know too much about the nightly happenings in such a place. I'm a night owl and recently have been staying up often til 6 or 7 in the morning working on things or reading websites such as this one etc. Anyhow I'm curious as to why once in a while at anywhere from 3-4 in the morning and such I will hear neighbor's dogs in the distance start barking. I know there's bears in the area though honestly this whole year there wasn't a single sighting yet though last year was a lot of black bears constantly but also I know that one of the few NJ sightings of bigfoot in history occurred in the area as well so I am just curious to ask from people that know these types of areas and animals (dogs) better than I do if that's a normal occurrence for dogs to sometimes start barking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?

I think I know where you maybe headed with this question.

Well, dogs can bark for numerous reasons. We have to remember that dogs have keen sense of hearing, and smell, even vision. Some people question the vision aspect because it has been shown that dogs only see in black and white, but they forget that at night it is probably more useful to have this type of ability. Light is more amplified or shows more contrast when viewing things black and white. If you are near less populated areas and therefore more wildlife, then any slight scurry of the smallest of creatures will set the dogs off, cats, squirrels, raccoons,..etc.

The point is; when dogs bark, they do so, because they hear see or smell something, granted it doesn't mean that they see bigfoot, but it does mean that something is bothering them...

[edit on 2-8-2008 by Gateway]

Well that's actually exactly what I was trying to find out, I never owned a dog so don't know too much about their characteristics. And mainly I was wondering whether they DO go wild and start barking at just small wild life like racoons, badgers, beavers, etc that type of thing.
Because I know there is alot of that stuff around, alot of beaver type animals crawl through my yards constantly etc but that's what I was mainly trying to ascertain is do dogs bark at that small stuff too because I was under the impression/presumption that they would mostly only bark at something far bigger and more threatening like a bear or a bigfoot etc.

Originally posted by Fulcrum29

Originally posted by Gateway

Originally posted by Fulcrum29
Hi guys I'm mostly from New York City but presently staying in a more rural setting in a fairly isolated part of NJ so I don't know too much about the nightly happenings in such a place. I'm a night owl and recently have been staying up often til 6 or 7 in the morning working on things or reading websites such as this one etc. Anyhow I'm curious as to why once in a while at anywhere from 3-4 in the morning and such I will hear neighbor's dogs in the distance start barking. I know there's bears in the area though honestly this whole year there wasn't a single sighting yet though last year was a lot of black bears constantly but also I know that one of the few NJ sightings of bigfoot in history occurred in the area as well so I am just curious to ask from people that know these types of areas and animals (dogs) better than I do if that's a normal occurrence for dogs to sometimes start barking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason?

I think I know where you maybe headed with this question.

Well, dogs can bark for numerous reasons. We have to remember that dogs have keen sense of hearing, and smell, even vision. Some people question the vision aspect because it has been shown that dogs only see in black and white, but they forget that at night it is probably more useful to have this type of ability. Light is more amplified or shows more contrast when viewing things black and white. If you are near less populated areas and therefore more wildlife, then any slight scurry of the smallest of creatures will set the dogs off, cats, squirrels, raccoons,..etc.

The point is; when dogs bark, they do so, because they hear see or smell something, granted it doesn't mean that they see bigfoot, but it does mean that something is bothering them...

[edit on 2-8-2008 by Gateway]

Well that's actually exactly what I was trying to find out, I never owned a dog so don't know too much about their characteristics. And mainly I was wondering whether they DO go wild and start barking at just small wild life like racoons, badgers, beavers, etc that type of thing.
Because I know there is alot of that stuff around, alot of beaver type animals crawl through my yards constantly etc but that's what I was mainly trying to ascertain is do dogs bark at that small stuff too because I was under the impression/presumption that they would mostly only bark at something far bigger and more threatening like a bear or a bigfoot etc.

No, dogs bark at small animals too, especially if they can't get at them. They can be very territorial, and if they are behind a fence and can only see or hear something in the distance that they can't get at, then they'll bark to vent their frustration or anger.



[edit on 2-8-2008 by Gateway]

Dogs also bark as a form of communication. If a dog starts barking in the distance, they will reply in kind. Often times in rural areas with a lot of dogs, you may hear a cascading of dogs barking. This is because something or someone is moving about and one dog passes the warning on to other dogs, who do the same thing.

Also, dogs do bark at smells and movement that they do not recognize. My dogs do not bark when they smell or see me outside.

I've got dogs and they bark at rabbits and squirells and people and things like trash that they don't really know what it is from a distance. Dogs bark. That's what they do. For whatever reasons.

We live in the sticks too and what sets our boy off sometimes is when the cows in the field next to us look at him. They're only 4 feet from the house on one site, right outside the bedroom window, so when he hears them munching grass at 4 am, he goes to investigate and it's all good till they make eye contact, and then it's like the world has ended..... I'm sure my nearest neighbours half a mile away can hear him.

And sometimes he barks just cos he's lost his ball under the sofa....

Cait

Originally posted by Blueracer
I've got dogs and they bark at rabbits and squirells and people and things like trash that they don't really know what it is from a distance. Dogs bark. That's what they do. For whatever reasons.

Completely true. Its pretty simple.

Absolutely everything you need to know about a dog's mentality.

www.dailymotion.com...

Absolutely, they bark at other animals. We are in a rural setting and have 4 dogs. I don't allow mine to bark at night, and I will lock them inside if necessary, but some people don't seem to mind. Just last night I was awakened by a dog in the distance barking its fool head off. What I don't understand is how the people (the owners) sleep through it! If it's waking me up 1/2 mile away, how would it be if they were right in my yard?

Anyway, it could be boredom, a rabbit, movement, a noise, a smell, just about anything. But a well-exercised and well-trained dog is more likely to sleep more soundly at night and less likely to bark at every noise.

Many people leave their dogs outside, too and it's more likely to alert at noises it hears on the night than a dog who is in the house. (I have an air cleaner on to mask every little outside noise just so the dogs don't hear them.)

At night, they also might be waking up in the middle of a nightmare. My dogs will sometimes wake up barking if they wake up in a nightmare.

I am rural , and almost everyone here has dogs. Mine do not bark at night, or bark at sirens. But Dog bark all day and all night here. I really do not notice it.
I have 6" walls. They will in the day bark back when they hear a strange or new dog barking .

Ama

As others have mentioned, dogs bark for a range of reasons.......Mine is an inside dog but is very 'protective' of his outside territory as well as the inside.

If he hears anything, any intruder, he barks. We have learned to pay attention when he 'says' something is amiss........

One afternoon, he was insistent that there was 'something' outside and though we looked out the window and could not see 'anyone' at the door or in the drive, he persisted. In exasperation, I opened the door to show him that there was no one there.......only to see that our old horse had somehow gotten out of the pasture and was grazing quietly in the front yard, just out of sight from the windows.

Another time he seemed to be insisting that the cat was in the house, under the dining room table. ( a favorite hiding place of hers, but I could see her sitting on the picnic table in the back yard, so I knew she was not there!)

When I pulled the chairs out to convince him that there was nothing there, I found a 6 ft. rat snake!! ( We think it came in to escape a cold snap, through some holes that had been cut in the floor for plumbing changes.....)

So if my dog barks in the middle of the night, I get up to check......He hears what I can't.



[edit on 2-8-2008 by frayed1]

reply to post by Fulcrum29


You have received a lot of good answers and all of them are correct. I live six miles out on a dirt road on five and a half acres of well forested land surrounded by one-hundred and twenty six acres of pristine woodland. This creates two quite unique problems. The first is very obvious. Woods are full of night critters. Night critters moving around going about their natural business means dogs barking. I have my own three tiered alarm system. I have two Rhodesian Ridgebacks and a yellow Lab. Ridgebacks don’t bark unless something is close enough to reach they only emit a low pitched guttural growl. I have two cats and they go berserk if something is right on my doorstep. But my telepathic angel is my Lab. She can hear a leaf blowing across the ground in the next county and she is going to let you know about it. Now for the second problem. Living in an isolated pristine area like this means that there is no ambient lighting so the light from the moon and the stars are on most nights as bright as the sun. Also since there is little unnatural noise, all sound is greatly amplified so you have no idea how far away anything is or sometimes even from which direction it came from. This also creates a stimulus for my Lab to show off her gifts. Of course I am sure that when she does this the dogs at a distance are just calling back and telling her to shut up and go to sleep.

NightSkyeB4Dawn

I recently saw a show that said dogs bark for the benefit of humans. Wolves do not bark, they may howl to communicate long distance but amongst themselves they communicate quietly and use a lot of body language.

Because humans don't hear as well or understand canine body language as well dogs learned/evolved to bark as a way of communicating with us, and now they also use it to communicate with eachother.

A bark is often an attempt to warn something away or call other pack members for backup.

I believe cats are similar, they meow at humans and other animals but they don't meow to eachother (other than mating calls or fighting noises).


[edit on 3-8-2008 by Sonya610]

reply to post by Fulcrum29


The dogs could be barking because they want to go to bed with their masters. My dogs would bark when I would go from the fenced in back to the front to do chores. They just wanted to be with me, but it was to dangerous for them with the street nearby.

reply to post by Sonya610


Pretty much on the cat thing, meows are mostly reserved for humans. They will meow specific meows to mean different things, while similar sounding there are subtile differences in their cat-human vocabulary. Unfortunately the language is specific to the individual cat as each meow comes from experimenting with what works on their owner to mean diferent things.

Some cats are very limited to food, pet, play. Siameese tend to have larger tones and vocabulary, some sound like human words. I could tell a story here but you would think I was pulling your leg. Suffice it to say a cat's vocabulary is dependant on the intelligence of the cat, the general mood, how well it bonds and spends time with its human and the range of experimantion of devolping specific meows and their effect.

they bark because they can't actually talk....

no 90% of the time a dog bark's it hear's a high pitch noise..such as a siren.
way off in the distance..
they hear really good.

Dogs will bark for any number of reasons. Outside dogs seem to bark much more frequently than in-house dogs. Not only that, but they seem to bark over much less than an inside dog would do.

This one German Shepard I had would bark if someone pulled in the driveway. I could tell by his bark whether they were known to him, or were strangers. His bark wouldn't scare me as much as his growl. He had this deep, soft, rumbling growl he would do when someone was skulking around outside. It woke me up more than once. THAT was the sound that made me get up and check, not his barking.